Also a standout track & field athlete, Broyles was one of the state's top performers in the high jump. At the 2006 Mid-State Conference Meet, he tied for first place in the high jump, posting a career-best mark of 2.10 meters (6 ft, 10 in).[2] He also ran on the Norman 4 × 100 m relay squad.

Broyles attended the University of Oklahoma, where he played for coach Bob Stoops's Oklahoma Sooners football team from 2008 to 2011. He was redshirted in 2007 after being arrested for attempting to steal gasoline from a closed down gas station.[3] In his first collegiate game against Cincinnati in 2008, Broyles had seven receptions for a school freshman record 141 yards. He finished the season tying a school freshman record with 46 receptions. His 687 yards were also a Sooners freshman record. He also had six receiving touchdowns and 30 punt returns for 238 yards and a touchdown.

In the 2009 season Broyles caught 76 passes for 964 yards and 12 touchdowns. He had 13 catches for 156 yards and three touchdowns in Oklahoma's 31–27 Sun Bowl victory over Stanford University.[4] In 2010 Broyles caught 131 passes for 1,622 yards and 14 touchdowns. In Oklahoma's 48–20 Fiesta Bowl victory over the University of Connecticut, he had 13 catches for 170 yards and a touchdown.[5]

On October 15, 2011, Broyles broke the all-time FBS career reception record (previously held by Taylor Stubblefield of Purdue) with his 317th career catch versus Kansas.[6] The record was later broken by Justin Hardy in 2014. Broyles college career ended in a game against Texas A&M on November 5, 2011 when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.[7] His senior season ended with 83 receptions for 1,157 yards and 10 touchdowns in nine games.

Broyles finished his career with 349 receptions for 4,586 yards and 45 touchdowns.

The Detroit Lions selected him in the second round (54th overall pick) of the 2012 NFL Draft.[8] He recorded his first NFL touchdown reception in the 4th quarter of Week 7, a 13-7 loss to the Chicago Bears.[9] On November 16, Broyles was fined $10,000 for an illegal crack-block against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 10.[10] He was named the 2012 Detroit Lions Rookie of the Year by the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association. On August 31, 2015, he was released by the Lions per his request, days after barely appearing in a preseason game against Jacksonville.

In 2007, he was arrested and charge with attempted larceny for trying to steal gas in Norman.[11] Norman police arrested him at Mr. Shortstop, a local gas station, when they found him with a fuel-pump key and a pump-override code. The misdemeanor landed him a six-month deferred sentence and a $100 fine.

"In Spring 2011 nearly two dozen OU athletes traveled to Haiti and volunteered at the Mission of Hope. In a country that has long been the poorest in the Western Hemisphere and is still reeling from the effects of a massive earthquake more than a year and a half ago, Broyles witnessed poverty unlike anything he'd ever seen. People with no roofs over their heads. People with no running water, no electricity, no modern convenience of any kind.

Everywhere he looked, he saw people with nothing — nothing but their faith. In that stripped-down, laid-bare world, people found joy in their faith. They smiled. They laughed. They celebrated. 'I was jealous, I wanted to be like that', Broyles said.;

After the mission trip to Haiti he became a more devout Christian. Broyles proposed to his high school and Oklahoma college girlfriend Mary Beth Offenburger. They married July 7, 2012.[12] In June 2015 their son Sebastian Reid Broyles was born.[13] He lives in a house he built in Dallas, Texas.